Spring Preachers

It seems to happen every spring: preachers preaching in front of the Ferg (Alabama's student center), condemning students. I met a couple of friends for a quick lunch on Monday and we decided to eat outside. Doing so allowed us to watch the first of these preachers "perform," "preach," "irritate," or whatever you'd like to call it. The man preaching today was dressed in a suit, had a Bible in hand, and continuously pounded said Bible as he spoke. Over the course of the 40 minutes we were outside, I didn't hear much of what he said, but could tell from the gathering crowd that he wasn't being nice or kind or seemingly careful with his words. As we sat there, we noticed a few colleagues of his walk up with signs. The one I read said, "Ask me how I know you're going to hell."

My friends and I talked a little bit about this type of "preaching" and whether it was like what happened in the first century or not. Was this what it was like for John the Baptist? For Jesus? What about John, Peter, or Paul? Would they walk around like this, drawing crowds because of (practically) hate-language? I don't know...I really don't. I know the reactions to them were sometimes similar to what the audience was demonstrating to this guy -- but I don't know if it was due to the delivery, the message, or some combination of both.

Somehow, I don't think this is really "spreading the good news." The only news that was being spread was that the students were sinners. And that's not really news. The tough part, I believe, is not disparaging a group of people publicly, but building relationships with them, sharing your lives together, and allowing the Holy Spirit to work through those relationships. That's hard because it's not immediate; that's hard because it takes sacrifice, patience, humility, forgiveness, and grace. It's a lot easier to stand in a crowd, tell everyone why they're wrong, give them a tract about how to get right, and say a few prayers. To genuinely invest in lives, meet people where they are, spend time with them on their time (and not predicated by yours), that's call I think we have before us -- and it's not an easy one. But I think the latter call comes closer to replicating the life and spirit of Jesus than the former. The good news is that's exactly what was done for us. Sure, there's a place for honest words, correcting of ways, and straightening things/lives out; I just think it's more effective and godly to do so in relationship instead of from the perspective of an all-knowing stranger.